You prefer to paint walls, trim and ceiling all the same color. Why?
Steve: It gives you a sense of being enveloped in color. It makes you feel the space rather than the details. The details recede, so they don’t become the focal point.
What do you say to people who are afraid to paint trim something other than white?
Brooke: It’s only paint! It’s okay to experiment. Paint one side of the trim and one part of the wall and see how it feels to you. That’s the beauty of paint. You can just let it dry and repaint.
A surprising textile you like to use is a painter’s dropcloth from Home Depot. Tell me about it.
Brooke: I have antique, homespun linens with imperfections that give them charm. The Home Depot dropcloths have those imperfections, too. You wash the dropcloths and they get softer.
My office chair is upholstered in it. We’ve used them as drapes. I’ve upholstered a client’s wall with them to be used as a pin-up board. We covered a guest room daybed in another client’s home.
Steve: Some people have old sofas that are red or other colors, and they are hard to deal with because they attract so much attention in the middle of the room. Covering them with the dropcloths is an inexpensive way to give those pieces charm. They are only a couple dollars per yard, and they are easy to wash.
How can someone achieve “patina style” on a limited budget?
Brooke: Use a calming and limited color palette. For furniture, use natural colors, such as pale gray linen, natural linen and natural wood colors. For accents, take colors from the outdoors: pale blues and greens.
Steve: Go to flea markets, buy old shutters and hang them on the walls to give a whole new texture and feeling to a room. Bring in unexpected exterior elements into a room. Slipcover old pieces in the drop cloths.
What do you think is so special about a piece with patina?
Brooke: We prefer to see how a piece has been worn; it’s a connection to the artist who made it. And because we are parents and realize that our own house has developed its own patina as we live in it with our children and pets. For example, the wear on the floors where kids have ridden their scooters, or the paint that’s wearing off the newel post on the stairs, or the kitchen counter where we baked cookies and our daughter put a hot tray on the wood. The heat discolored the wood, but it looked beautiful to us.
Steve: People try to wipe that stuff clean and keep everything perfect, but that’s the beauty of things. They hold your memories.
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